The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1887-08-22
Che 59ailg 8nlletin,
MONDAY, AUG. %, 1887.
NAMES OF TOWNS AND MEN,.

is made Il study by some scholar in
search of fresh literary fields and
book pastures new. The venerable
David Dudley Field not long since
delivered an interesting lecture on
the names of the towns of this State,
hurting all the invectives in his opu-
lent magazine at the half-learned
individual, whoever he may have
been, who strewd this goodly region
with the cast-off clothing of Greece
and Rome. Professor Dexter of
Yale College prepared a very enter
tanning pamphlet on the names of
the Connecticut towns, and pointed
out that the absence of political
color in them bore witness to the
diplomatic caution which character
lied the colonial history of the
State, thus presenting sharp con-
trast to the course of the elder
colony of Massachusetts,, the list of
towns in which reads like page of
"Debrett. Occasionally reporter
in a dry time helps out his quota
with a scintillation of wit on the
never-failing theme of the names of
his fellow citizens of Polish extrac-
ton, if he live in Buffalo, or of
those of Welsh antecedents if Utica
claims him for her own. But it
must be said that the subject of
names generally is far from being
worked for all it is worth, as Mr..
Emerson might have put it.
The names of towns are often in
teresting. Sometimes a story goes
with them, as in the case of Horse
heads or Penn Yam. Sometimes
they commemorate individuals in a
quaint manner, such as Wilkes
Barre, or Angelica, which bears the
name of one of General Schuyler's
daughters or Marilla, in Erie
county, named after one of the
most respected and esteemed of the
mothers in cur Buffalo Israel, who
is still with us. So Euclid, Ohio,
which, in turn, gave a name to a
famous street, was tribute of res
pect from the original surveyors to
their patron saint in mathematics.
Again name may illustrate queer
course of corruption, as Killing
worth, which was originally Kenll-
worth. But the names of towns
certainly do not surpass in interest
as fields of study those of families.
The author of one of the volumes in
American Commonwealth" series,
Professor Johnston, says that the
names of the union soldiers, who
went from the State whose history
he is telling, will almost show which
town is entitled to each man. And
it might be remarked that traveller,
who reads the signs of the Western
cities of this country can gain a
pretty good idea of the antecedents
of its merchants. If a Coffin is met in
Indiana the chances are strong that
the roar of the surf upon Nantuck-
cts coast is a recollection of his
youth, and that he is a descendant
of the original Tristram Coffin. The
Balls are for the most part from
Block Island. The only certain
thing about Clark is that he is
from some part of New England,
where the name is commoner than
Smith. A L'Hommedieu, Lopez,
or Horton is from Long Island,
and Horizons Point Light is there to
witness if we lie. A Bachelor or a
Prouty is probably from Worcester
county, Mass, and Woodruff from
Litchtield county, Conn. The Bar
tons are Rhode Islanders, and proud
of telling how one member of their
family captured the British General
Prescott. The Colts are neighbors
of theirs, having come from Nor
witch, the rose of New England. II
one should happen to be in Cheek
towaga, and hear mentioned the
name of Seldom Ely, it would be
safe to call on him and inquire what
sort of run of shad they had at
Lyme this year. The same inform
alton could be obtained from a
Bushnell, but not from Waite
the latter comes from farther east,
from beyond the shad limit. Oh
course, the Depews of the whole
race of Vans are descendants Of
Dutchmen of the Mohawk and Hud
son Valleys, and every Evans OF
Ellicott is living record of the
romantic inter-marriages of those
families, and the one home that
sheltered them all at Ellicott Mills
MIDI Buffalo Courier.